


Take a piece with you.

by Insomination



Category: Oxenfree
Genre: F/F, F/M, Jonas/Ren and Alex/Nona will happen over time., M/M, This is totally based on another work, gnarled-bone's, go check it out, this is pretty much a suffering superhero AU, who I'm gifting this too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-15 22:09:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10558498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insomination/pseuds/Insomination
Summary: So this is based almost entirely on the premise in gnarled-bone‘s fanfic "The ghosts we carry", so I highly recommend you go read that first. They gave me permission to take the idea and run with it, and by god Alex the suffering hero is my drug. This is pretty much my setup chapter, or a prologue if you want.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gnarled_Bone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gnarled_Bone/gifts).



“Hey, don’t worry about it Alex! We’re back on the boat, it’s morning! We made it, it’s over!” Ren cheered, bumping into Alex as she leaned over the side, staring at the island retreating in the distance.  
“Yeah, I guess it is.” Alex replied, looking down at the water and seeing red eyes reflected back at her. 

It started slowly. It started so slowly, Alex couldn’t be quite sure if the first event she noticed was even the first event.   
“I hate physics.” She muttered to herself as the words in her textbook began to blend together. Digging the heel of her hand into her eyes, she muttered “I wish I had more time to study.”   
Unnoticed by her, next to her on her desk, her watch kept on ticking. But it was slower, ever so slightly. A second took about 1.2 seconds. Then 1.7. Then 2.3. Soon every five seconds was a second.   
Alex didn’t know why, but she felt something…off. Around her, like in the air, but not. Looking up from her book, she examined her surroundings checking for details. Everything was in order. Posters still there. Leaves still on the trees. Watch still ticking away. Shrugging, she returned to her book, trying to shake the odd feeling she still had.

Groaning, Alex awoke to the blaring of her alarm next to her head.   
“Come on, one more hour.”  
 _ **bzzzZZZKK**_  
When Alex opened her eyes, the alarm had stopped. Sure enough, it read an hour before she was even supposed to wake up. _Technical glitch? Yeah, probably._ Alex thought to herself as she rolled back over. She didn’t fall asleep though. 

“I can and will make you brownies, you ungrateful cretin!” Michael called to her as she exited the kitchen.   
“Fine! As long as they’re not Ren brownies!”   
“No Ren brownies for you. Ever! Now fetch me the mix!”  
Alex chuckled to herself as she opened the pantry door and started scrambling around for the mix. God, it must’ve been years since they made brownies together. At least, she thought it was years. The Island screwed her sense of time pretty royally. God where was that brownie mix anyway? She could’ve sworn it was right-  
 _ **bzzzZZZKK**_   
here. Alex looked at the mix she had in her hand with a frown. That weird pull. It almost felt like…  
No. She shook off the feeling. She left that behind on the island. That was over now.   
_but YoU TOOK Part Of tHE isLAND wiTh you_  
Alex winced and clutched her head. _Shut up. We agreed you wouldn’t speak._  
 _tHinGS ARe HaPPeniNg ALEx. THIngs you CAnnoT iGnOrE._  
“Hey Alex? Did you get kidnapped by Igor the basement troll again? I will mount a brave and valiant rescue mission!”  
”Coming!”  
 _Watch me._ _  
_

Of course, things couldn’t be ignored forever.   
It happened by chance, in some crappy gas station. Her life could never be normal. The five of them were there, using their freedom as teenagers with cars to do things because they could. In this case, that was buying candy and sneaking it into a movie theater. Ren and Jonas were arguing about the risk:reward ratio of trying to sneak in a whole bag of chips, Clarissa and Michael were off being lovey, and she and Nona were discussing the merits of Twizzlers.   
“You know, you can pretty much play an American pocky game with a Twizzler.”  
“True! I can’t believe I never thought of that!”  
The classic _ding_ of a public front door being open jingled happily, followed by a much less happy _BANG_ of the door hitting the display it was next to.  
“Hands up!”  
The friends just stood there, staring at the masked man, to stunned to move. Until he cocked his handgun and pointed it at them. “I SAID HANDS UP!” The six put their hands in the air, Alex slowly sliding in front of Nona to block her from harm.   
“You! Money in the bag! Any funny business, and I shoot a kid!” the robber said, throwing a sack at the attendee, who picked up the sack and began unloading the register into it.   
“Well this probably derails our plans for the night huh?”  
“Shut up Ren.”  
“’Cause we’re definitely not making the movie.”  
“Shut up Ren!”  
“I’m sorry, you know me. I talk when I’m nervous, and this is pretty nerve-”  
“STUFF IT CURLY, BEFORE I PUT A THIRD EYE SOCKET IN YOUR HEAD!”  
Alex would relive the next two seconds over and over again for the rest of her life. The cashier knocked over a stand of lighters. And the gunman got startled. And fired.   
Time slowed. Alex watched as the bullet cut through the air, leaving a shockwave behind it. As it approached her body, closer and closer, a pressure in her head kept getting worse and worse. It tore through her jacket, and her vision started to black out at the edges. She felt it spinning against the top of her skin, and-  
 _ **bzzzZZZKK**_   
Alex shot up in bed, panting and clutching her chest where the bullet was about to penetrate her skin.   
_ALeX. We MuST DIsCuSs THIs._  
Alex wanted nothing more than to say it was a dream. That in never happened. But as she felt the area above her chest where the bullet was digging into her, she felt a small ring of burnt skin that was still warm to the touch.   
“Ok.” She said aloud, though she wasn’t sure why. “Ok. What are these powers I have?”


	2. Finesse

To an outside observer, Alex would’ve looked like she was sitting on her bed, talking to her wall. Of course, she wasn’t.  
“What the Hell is happening to me?”  
 _wE dO not KNow._  
“What do you mean you don’t know?! There’s a common denominator pal, guess what it is!”  
 _thIS Has neVER HaPpeNED bEFore AleX. tO eItHeR Of uS. these Are unChARTEd wATERs._  
“Don’t give me that! This is you! It has to be you!”  
A sharp beep cut off the Sunken’s reply. Glancing over, Alex saw the readout on her alarm clock going haywire. Running forwards, backwards, jumping. Alex wanted to believe it was a technical glitch.  
 _ALex. yoU mUSt CALm DOWN.  
_ “That is not what I want to hear from you right now.”  
 _do you WISh To bE STuCK iN AnotHER LOOp FOR eteRNiTY?  
_ Alex actually shuddered at the thought. “Absolutely not. Can I do that?”  
 _we dO nOt knoW whaT YOU CAN dO. BETtEr SAfe thAN SOrrY.  
_ Closing her eyes and breathing deep, Alex slowed her heart back to it’s non-angry pace. Opening her eyes, she saw the readout had stabilized.  
“Oh God is that the same time it was before? Is this my time?”  
 _ALL Time iS YoUR TiME nOW AleX.  
_ Alex felt her heart kick back up at that, and forced herself to calm down. _It’s Ok. Worse comes to worse, it’s only an hour or two difference._  
“What now?”  
 _NoW yOU pRactICE.  
_ “Really? For how long?”  
 _DoEs iT MATTer? YOu haVe All thE TiME In The WoRLd._  
Alex tried to ignore the twinge that crept down her spine at that chilling truth. 

The first thing Alex learned how to do was turn back an hour. And with that trick in her pocket, she created her own loop. Then she got to work. The way she saw (felt) it, there were two methods. “Brute force”, like she did with the hour-trick, took a lot of concentration and left her tired. She figured she could Brute Force pretty much anything, but the further back she went, the more exhausted she got. “Finesse” was smoother and required almost no thought or energy, but needed practice to master. She started small, and by the third “hour” she had mastered Finessing a second. Finessing a minute took longer, up to the eighth “hour”. Finessing an hour was the real bitch. It took her nearly a “week” to master, but soon she could wind back the hours with ease. She also practiced teleporting small objects around her room, like her stapler or a pencil. They even started coming back eventually.   
 _that ShOuLd bE EnougH. nO nEeD tO stREtcH TOo Far.  
_ Alex flopped down on her bed, ready to let time flow as normal again. “So what now? Go win the lottery?”  
 _iF you wisH.  
_ “Really? I figured you’d try to talk me out of it. It’s not really fair.”  
 _wE ARE NoT YOUR moTHEr Alex. WE arE juSt HeRe fOr The RidE. WHAt YOu DO witH TheSe POWerS ARe yOur CHoIcE._  
For some reason that troubled Alex, rather than comfort her.  
 _sLeEP WelL aLEX. You HAvE TriAlS aHead._


	3. Hubris

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You have time powers. Why not use them? Why not abuse them? There are no consequences.
> 
> Right?

Alex woke up more rested than she had ever felt in her life. Every time her alarm went off, she just set the rewound back to midnight and went back to bed. She got like…ten hours of sleep. It was glorious. Grinning, Alex walked downstairs for breakfast.

“Still in your pajamas sweetie?” Her mother asked with concern in her voice.

“Don’t want to be late to school, eh little sis?”

Alex snickered behind her hand, then collected herself and said “Don’t worry guys. I have time.”

God she was such a nerd.

Walking into the school building, Alex felt like a queen. Nothing here could bother her anymore. Granted, nothing here really tried in the past, but the guarantee that she could just undo anything that happened filled her with a dangerous euphoria. An addictive euphoria.

But she wasn’t going to let that get to her. She wasn’t evil. She wasn’t the Sunken. As she walked down the hall to her first period class, her eyes settled on Ron Powers.

High school didn’t really have bullies like in those stupid movies they show you. Well, not hers at least. But then Ron moved in, and suddenly kids were getting spitballs in their hair and shaken down for money in the parking lot.

As she watched Ron snicker to his cronies and extended his leg out into the hallway slightly. And Samantha Green, who was carrying the paper mache project she had been working on for a month, faceplanting on the ground and smashing her model into a million pieces. Alex was filled with sadness and righteous fury. But she had found her first use for her powers. Grinning to herself, Alex walked into a bathroom stall, and pulled herself back a few minutes. Exiting the stall, she saw Rob snickering to his pals and Sam fast approaching. Thinking on her feet, she rushed over to Sam and said “Hey Sam! Need help with this? Looks unwieldy.”  
“Aw. Thanks Alex.” Sam said, shifting her hands over to allow a handhold. “And thanks for using the word unwieldy. I don’t think anyone under the age of 45 has ever said that.”  
“Well, you know me! Walking thesaurus!”  
Alex made sure to step on Rob’s ankle. Then apologized profusely of course.

Spread out across the school, four people simultaneously got a headache.

-

Alex was LIVING. After the unending Hell of Edwards Island, she thought maybe she deserved some time to be free. Free to do as she wanted.  She had done her penance, right? Now it was time to reap the rewards. But where to begin? There were so many possibilities, and simultaneously so many things she wasn’t sure about. How far did her powers really go? He train of thought was interrupted by the teacher energetically throwing open the door and announcing “Pop quiz!” The groan was unanimous, no one liked these pop quizzes. As Alex went over all the things they were studying in her head (maybe she could go back to this morning to study?), she spied a paper sticking out of the folder her teacher was carrying. With the word “KEY” stamped on the top in big red letters. An idea formed. A crazy insane one for any other kid. But Alex wasn’t any other kid. Not anymore. Pushing her seat back, she walked up to the teacher’s desk. “Excuse me sir.” she said, “I’m just going to look at this for a second.” she followed, slipping the key up in front of her face as her eyes began to flick across it. “Ms. Blackwood!” her teacher exclaimed, dumbfounded. “What do you think you’re doing?”  
“Nothing sir.” Alex replied, putting the key back down on the desk and returning to her seat. “Nothing at all.”  
**_bzzzZZZKK_**

In the back of the class, out of the line of Alex’s sight, an unassuming girl with black hair groaned to herself, clutching her head.

-

Alex practically danced down the halls. She was in charge. Nothing could beat her, not anymore. Humming to herself, she stopped by the gym’s supply closet, picking up a hockey stick. Bringing it back out into the hallway, she gripped it like a lance and charged forward, ramming it through the glass of a vending machine. Pushing aside the glass, she grabbed a Hershey’s bar or two and slipped them into her hoodie pocket.  
“Ma’am! Please put your hands in the air.” said a gruff voice from her left.  
Alex snickered to herself.  
**_bzzzZZZKK_**

Out on the track, a curly-haired boy and the new kid blacked out, and had to be taken to the nurse’s office.

-

She was walking out when she saw it. There, to her left. Ron again. Of course, it was always Ron. Cornering some kid against his pickup, the look on his face and fist in his palm clear enough language for his intentions. Not this time Ron. No more.  
“Hey Ron!” Alex called out, jogging over to the scene. Ron turned to look, and the smaller kid used the distraction to bolt. Realizing his mistake too late, Ron whipped his head back around, but his victim (Justin, Alex thought his name was) was long gone.  
“What the fuck Alex? What do you want?”  
“I’m pretty tired of you picking on the little guys Ron.”  
“Yeah? What’re you gonna do about it?” he replied with the arrogant sneer Alex had thought nobody actually did in real life.  
Alex responded with a quick jab to his abdomen, and then a knee to his face after he brought it down to his level. No one expected the cross-country queen to know martial arts, but she wasn’t always the cross-country queen. Let’s do some experiments.  
**_bzzzZZZKK  
_** She decided to lift her leg up and smash it down on her knee. She’d never felt another person’s bone break under her own blow before. Felt good.  
**_bzzzZZZKK_**  
She wend for a nose breaker this time.  
**_bzzzZZZKK_**  
Elbow to the jaw.  
**_bzzzZZZKK_**  
The groin had so many possibilities.  
**_bzzzZZZKK_**  
Alex’s fist was clenched, ready to try and drive a knuckle into his eye when she heard the sound. It was probably a cough, but it was so wet it may very well have come from underwater. Ron looked over her shoulder and whispered “Oh Jesus.” under his breath. Turning to look, Alex’s blood ran cold.  
Behind her, not 20 feet away stood Nona. She was pale as a ghost and swaying heavily on the spot.  
And the front of her sweater was covered in the blood leaking from her mouth.  
“Oh God Nona!” Alex shouted, fully turning her body and sprinting over, catching Nona right before she fell face first on the pavement. “Nona! Nona oh god can you hear me?” Alex said, gently rotating Nona in her arms to look at her eyes. They were unfocused and hazy. Nona coughed, and blood sprayed up onto Alex’s face. She barely felt it. “Alex?” Nona replied. Or at least she thought. It was too bubbly and garbled to tell. “Oh god Nona Nona no! Stay with me!” Digging frantically in her pocket, she yanked out her phone and dialled 911. “Hello? My friend is bleeding from her mouth and she can’t stand! Andrew Point High!” Looking back down at Nona, she saw her eyes had shut. And she was deathly still. Pushing her fingers to Nona’s neck, she couldn’t feel anything.  
“Nona!”


End file.
